Cricket is as much a passion in
Kashmir as in the rest of Indian subcontinent, but loyalties here are not based
on paper nationalities or passports. With every India Pakistan cricket
encounter, emotions run high in Kashmir with anxious people, some of them in
prayers seeking the win of team Pakistan. For long majority Kashmiris have
known not to identify with the geo-political idea of India. Blame this, part on
decades of denial of political, economic and civilian rights in Kashmir by
India and part on the ethnic and religious image of Pakistan identified with by
Kashmiris. Hence every India Pak cricket encounter is virtually treated as team
Kashmir v/s team India. Perhaps the roots of this ideological subscription
evolved with the partition of India and Pakistan and the military division of
Kashmir between two warring neighbors, much against the wishes of common
Kashmiris. Even before India had promised a plebiscite for Kashmir at the UN, Kashmir
should have gone to Pakistan based on the partition rule of religious
majorities. While the Maharaja of Kashmir (who himself was a non Kashmiri,
having inherited this kingdom after the British had sold it to his family in 1846)
wanted to remain independent, an instrument of accession is reportedly have
been signed by him under dubious circumstances, the accession being still
temporary till common Kashmiris decided their own future. People of Kashmir always
awaited the much promised plebiscite, which India always dithered with. Right
after the creation of ‘Azad Kashmir’ an autonomous region under Pakistan,
Kashmiris started looking at Pakistan for supporting their cause. And for
decades every cricket encounter between India and Pakistan was seen here as a
battle of ideals and thoughts.

Over decades while India reneged
on its promise of a plebiscite in Kashmir, it also forced total political,
economic and civil rights deprivation in Kashmir by rigging elections,
installing nominated political proxies, exerting exclusive rights over Kashmir
waters and resources and trampling human rights with impunity. It was this deprivation
that exhausted all or any little hope of justice that Kashmiris might have had
from India. Such deprivation and desperation became one of the prime reasons of
insurgency in Kashmir. For all claims of India blaming Pakistan for the
insurgency in Kashmir, it is India which is primarily responsible for igniting
and sustaining insurgency here by pushing common Kashmiris to the extreme wall,
Pakistan only seized an unrest opportunity created and fueled by India. The
open rigging of 1987 election by Farooq Abdullah and party with Delhi’s
blessings and the subsequent torture of political opponents was just a brink
waiting to fill up for this revolt. The years that followed saw unimaginable
atrocities committed by Indian forces against common Kashmiris, including
routine massacres, rapes, murders, custodial disappearances and disabling
torture. Most of these heinous crimes were aimed at breaking the will of common
people, subjugating their political and civil aspirations and forcing a
colonizing order in Kashmir. Indian policy on Kashmir was evident from a bold
sign written in an Indian security forces camp “Get them by their balls, hearts and minds will follow.”

While Kashmiris may have a soft
corner for Pakistan, majority here do not want to be a part of Pakistan. Over
years the common sentiment in Kashmir has set into ‘cordially your neighbor but not your part’ for both India and
Pakistan. The idea of Pakistan that existed six decades back is in total
contrast to the reality of Pakistan that is viewed by the new generation in
Kashmir. But whatever the political, economic change Pakistan may have
encountered over years, Kashmiris continue to identify with it culturally,
geographically and in faith. The ‘Azadi’ narrative in Kashmir may not see
Pakistan as a choice, but they see Pakistan as a support pillar, as a contra
force to India. And this identification with the domain of Pakistan extends
beyond politics. Every Eid festival in Kashmir only follows the sighting of
moon by religious experts in Pakistan (and not of India), so much so that even
the ‘Sarkari Mufti’ in Kashmir (cleric known to be sponsored by NC government) is
known to push his two bytes of ‘Eid moon announcement’ on state broadcaster only
after he has heard the moon sighting announcement on Pakistan TV. It is another
matter altogether that nobody in Kashmir pays heed to the ‘Sarkari Mufti’.

Displaying a pro Pakistan
sentiment in Kashmir is also seen as an attempt by some youth to tease the Indian
forces, viewed as oppressive and draconian by commoners. I have witnessed some
youth shouting ‘Azadi’ slogans in their protests and then shifting to ‘Jeeve
Jeeve Pakistan’ when in sight of Indian forces bunkers. They know Indian forces
get angrier by the mention of Pakistan than with Azadi. Often such sloganeering
by conflict traumatized and military brutalized youth is not mere provocation
but an attempt to respond to the military aggressor by whatever means they can.
It is a way of letting the steam out from a barricaded psychological
trauma.And such psyche gets further strengthened
with incidents like
Indian forces shooting dead innocent youth in Srinagar just because India lost
a match to Pakistan (in the Australasia Cup) or more recently at Gulmarg Indian
soldiers stabbing a Kashmiri youth after Pakistan had defeated the Indian team
in Bangladesh. Such team alliances are old, as a child I remember how some
Pandit boys would pelt stones on Muslims houses close to where my teacher lived
in old Srinagar, whenever India lost a match, and often these boys would not be
acted upon since their families had the ‘right official connections’. During
past two decades (especially the peak of insurgency) brutal crackdowns by the
Indian armed forces were enforced on local habitations, locals beaten up or
arrested whenever India lost a cricket match to Pakistan, as if holding common
Kashmiris responsible for the loss or incapability of the Indian team. Over
years, in mainland India such hate and prejudice seems to have only grown,
example Kashmiri
students expelled from a Meerut university because they cheered for Afridi or
Kashmiri students in Punjab harassed for cheering team Pakistan.

But it is not only the pro Azadi
lobby in Kashmir that supports team Pakistan. I have witnessed how a prominent pro Delhi
politician sat on the edge of his sofa, during an India Pakistan match,
cheering for team Pakistan. Such support for team Pakistan exists beyond the
political divide here, identifying more with the idea of a welfare Muslim state
there, or as in recent times, against the rising Hindu right wing domination in
India that views Muslims as second class citizens. Many erstwhile pro India personalities
in Kashmir that I have conversed with have turned around in their political
ideology realizing the fate of Indian Muslims in India and the futility of
Kashmiri hopes there. For if the Muslims of India, who are Indian nationalists
by choice, stare at a bleak future in right winged India, what chances did the
Kashmiri Muslim have there, who are not only targeted for being Muslim but also
for being Kashmiri!

While the new generation of
Kashmir has learned by experience the bitter realities of Indian military hold
on Kashmir, the older generation has outlived brutalities of earlier New Delhi
regimes. Post ’47 stories of Sheikh Abdullah’s henchmen and state forces
keeping an eye on people and how anybody found listening to ‘Radio Muzaffarabad’
would be tortured, often by stuffing their mouth with boiling potatoes or using
hot iron on their bodies. Such torture acts were utilized only to keep his
political opposition subdued, most political opponents having already been driven
out of Kashmir by brute force. But even such torture tactics could not subdue
the feelings of common Kashmiris towards Pakistan. Ironically in later years
Sheikh Abdulla’s son Farooq Abdullah was reported to have been a ‘founding member of JKLF’ when ‘he visited
Pakistan Administered Kashmir in 1974, met Amanullah Khan and called for a plebiscite
here’ (page 162 ‘Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir’ by Jagmohan). His brief leaning
towards the ‘plebiscite front’ and flip-flops between total pro India, autonomy
and Pakistan have always been seen as convenient political posturing while
being faithful to none particular. The use of Pakistan by pro Delhi politicians
is not anything new, often seen using Pakistan speak in Kashmir to seek power.

For Kashmiris, much blood has
flown down the Jehlum at the hands of India. The seeds of denial and brutality
India planted for decades in Kashmir could only reap bitterness and
disillusionment. What India views (and pretends blind to) as one odd Pathribal,
Machil, KunanPoshpora, Gawkadal or Bijebehada, has been a routine in Kashmir at
the hands of Indian forces. With trampling of innocent lives by a military
machine becoming the norm, resistance becomes the rule, even
be it with mere words or slogans. And continuity of such persecution and
despotism on a generation leads them to a psychological state where fear ceases
often leading to disastrous consequences, at times evolving from peaceful to
violent protests (in 2010 youth killed by the Indian forces were peaceful
protestors). In such circumstances expecting this alienated fearless generation
to show any support for India, even if in sports, is farfetched. Kashmiris do
not hate Indians; they hate the Indian oppression of Kashmir, the denial of
justice. Indians linking the cheering of Kashmiris for team Pakistan with ‘shunt them out of India’ nationalism is
as ridiculous as England throwing out Indians with British passports just
because they would support team India in an India v/s England match. In an extremely alienated environment, such sports wins are brief occasions
of collective joy for Kashmiris. Viewing such jubilation as treason,
while India never cared about the rights of Kashmiris, is as ridiculous as can be.

Sports being just a game, the
choices of team support should be personal, keeping forced nationalism away
from it. Instead of targeting Kashmiris for their cricket affiliations, India
should utilize its energies to resolve the Kashmir tangle. You don’t force loyalties
and support, you earn them.